35th FIFF announces jury panel for Interfaith Competition

Members of the jury panel for the Interfaith Competition of the 35th edition of the Fajr International Film Festival have been announced.

The organizers recently released the jury list which includes Michał Legan, Katia Malatesta, and Hojatollah Ayyoubi.

Born in 1979 in Zielona Góra, Poland, Legan is a theologian, a filmologist, a TV producer, the author of the theological interpretation of Andrei Tarkowski’s work Balthasar/Tarkowski.

He is the Head of the Theology of Media Institute at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow.

Graduated in Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Malatesta received her PhD in History of the Visual Arts from the University of Pisa. She is the Artistic Director of an Italian Festival called Religion Today Film Festival.

Since 1997, Religion Today has been the foremost international film festival dedicated to promoting peace and dialogue between different cultures.

Born in 1963, Ayyoubi is the former head of Iran’s Cinema Organization, as well as the President of ECO Cultural Institute.

He has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Lyon 2 in France. He had also held the position of Iran’s cultural attaché in Paris.

Established in 1982, the Fajr International Film Festival celebrates cultural exchange, displays creative achievements of highly acclaimed cineastes and pays tribute to local and international films.

Since its establishment, the Fajr International Film Festival has played a vital role in the development of the Iranian Cinema.

Supervised by Iran’s Ministry of Culture, the festival hosts veteran directors and new filmmakers from Iran and across the world every year.

The 35th International Fajr Film Festival is scheduled to take place in the country’s capital of Tehran from April 21 through 28, 2017.

MG/HY